artcrest ring
 

I have a 14 kp white gold men's diamond wedding band with the markings
"artcrest" and 14kp on the inside of the band. It was purchased in
1983. I am trying to get info on the manufacturer and what alloys where
used and if it was plated. I have searched but can find no mention of
who made artcrest rings in the 1980's. Any help would be appreciated.

artcrest ring
 

wrote:
I have a 14 kp white gold men's diamond wedding band with the markings
"artcrest" and 14kp on the inside of the band. It was purchased in
1983. I am trying to get info on the manufacturer and what alloys where
used and if it was plated. I have searched but can find no mention of
who made artcrest rings in the 1980's. Any help would be appreciated.



14 kp is supposed to mean 14 karat plumb.

--
Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

artcrest ring
 

On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 15:25:34 GMT, "
wrote:

I have a 14 kp white gold men's diamond wedding band with the markings
"artcrest" and 14kp on the inside of the band. It was purchased in
1983. I am trying to get info on the manufacturer and what alloys where
used and if it was plated. I have searched but can find no mention of
who made artcrest rings in the 1980's. Any help would be appreciated.

The p at the end of 14kp means plated.

I searched US trademarks and came up with this:

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield...ate=afsoh7.2.1

but it may not be the company you mean. Not all companies have
trademarks.
--
Marilee J. Layman
http://mjlayman.livejournal.com/

artcrest ring
 

Marilee J. Layman wrote:
On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 15:25:34 GMT, "
wrote:


I have a 14 kp white gold men's diamond wedding band with the markings
"artcrest" and 14kp on the inside of the band. It was purchased in
1983. I am trying to get info on the manufacturer and what alloys where
used and if it was plated. I have searched but can find no mention of
who made artcrest rings in the 1980's. Any help would be appreciated.


The p at the end of 14kp means plated.

No! it means plumb. Or at least it is supposed to mean plumb.


--
Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

artcrest ring
 

On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 19:49:56 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry Abrasha
wrote:


The p at the end of 14kp means plated.

No! it means plumb. Or at least it is supposed to mean plumb.


Abrasha is, of course, correct on this. A plated ring probably would notbe
marked 14K, since a plating solution that actually produces a 14K depositis
quite difficult to make. More common is one that lays down something slightly
above 18K or higher. Common markings for that, if it's marked, are not 18KP
(which would also mean plumb karat content), but rather, stuff like 18K HGE,
with the HGE standing for "heavy gold electroplate". More rarely, one sees
"GP". But the P by itself is always "Plumb" It's not so common to see that
any more, but in the early 80s, it was quite common. The reason is that the
U.S. had not so many years earlier, changed it's stamping laws. Prior tothe
change, gold items could vary from the stamped karat by as much as half akarat,
presumably to allow for solder in constructed pieces, a ruling dating from the
old days when solders were always of lower karat than the gold they were
formulated to assemble. But by the time the stamping act was passed, that was
irrelevant, and most jewelry didn't use solders for assembly anyway, being cast
in one piece. So manufacturers simply made things from less expensive 13.5
karat gold, and marked it 14K. After the stamping act was changed, though new
pieces had to be made to the new standard, retailers had a few years in which
they could sell off old stocks of the old stuff. In order that people would be
able to tell if they were buying actual 14K or the older 13.5K, manufacturers
came up with the P added to the karat stamp to show that the new stuff was a
full 14K gold content. All this only applied to items made in the U.S., of
course, since most of the rest of the world had never allowed that sloppy
variance in gold content in the first place.

Peter

artcrest ring
 

Peter W.. Rowe, wrote:
On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 19:49:56 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry Abrasha
wrote:


The p at the end of 14kp means plated.

No! it means plumb. Or at least it is supposed to mean plumb.



Abrasha is, of course, correct on this. A plated ring probably would not be
marked 14K

It is my understanding that the karat rating of gold plating is simply a
statement of the color and has nothing to do with the amount of gold.

Is this correct?

js


--
PHOTO OF THE WEEK: http://schmidling.com/pow.htm
Astronomy, Beer, Cheese, Fiber,Gems, Sausage,Silver http://schmidling.com

artcrest ring
 

On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 13:03:52 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry Jack Schmidling
wrote:

It is my understanding that the karat rating of gold plating is simply a
statement of the color and has nothing to do with the amount of gold.

Is this correct?

js

Generally, Yes. single bath systems with single anodes and power supplies, such
as the majority of gold plating baths one can purchase for small shop use, are
usually fairly high karat deposits formulated to match a particular color, not a
precise karat content of the deposit. These baths are labeled according to the
color they are supposed to most closely match.

More complex systems exist, usually reserved for electroforming operations,
which can produce a plated deposit of a specific desired alloy composition, thus
giving control over both color AND karat content of the finished item. These
are, so far as I know, proprietary systems, and not inexpensive ones at that.

Peter

artcrest ring
 

On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 04:05:08 GMT, "Peter W.. Rowe,"
wrote:

In order that people would be
able to tell if they were buying actual 14K or the older 13.5K, manufacturers
came up with the P added to the karat stamp to show that the new stuff was a
full 14K gold content. All this only applied to items made in the U.S.,of
course, since most of the rest of the world had never allowed that sloppy
variance in gold content in the first place.

Hmmm, I didn't know that.
--
Marilee J. Layman
http://mjlayman.livejournal.com/

artcrest ring
 

On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 14:52:08 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry "Marilee J. Layman"
wrote:

On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 04:05:08 GMT, "Peter W.. Rowe,"
wrote:

In order that people would be
able to tell if they were buying actual 14K or the older 13.5K, manufacturers
came up with the P added to the karat stamp to show that the new stuffwas a
full 14K gold content. All this only applied to items made in the U.S., of
course, since most of the rest of the world had never allowed that sloppy
variance in gold content in the first place.

Hmmm, I didn't know that.

Pulling this from memory, so I might be off. But the revised stamping act was
passed in '76, I think, and gave retailers, I think, five years, to get rid of
old stock. Not sure about that, so if someone has that data handy, feel free to
correct. But if so, it means you could still have been legally buying 13.5
karat gold (or 17.5 karat, if marked 18K) marked as 14K in 1981. So the Plumb
marking added to the karat stamp was quite common, if not even the norm, for
things sold throughout the early 80s, and for some time later too. You still
sometimes see it. By the way, gold in the U.S. can still be slightly under
karat legally. Unlike some countries, like Great Britain, where if it's marked
a certain karat, it simply cannot be any less, the variance allowed in the U.S.
under the revised law is 3 parts per thousand. In Great Britain, the variance
is often dealt with by simply using gold stock that's alloyed to be slightly
above the stated karat. That way, any unintended variances in an item will
still keep it to standard.

Peter

artcrest ring
 

Jack Schmidling wrote:
Peter W.. Rowe, wrote:

On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 19:49:56 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry Abrasha
wrote:



The p at the end of 14kp means plated.

No! it means plumb. Or at least it is supposed to mean plumb.



Abrasha is, of course, correct on this. A plated ring probably would not be
marked 14K


It is my understanding that the karat rating of gold plating is simply a
statement of the color and has nothing to do with the amount of gold.

Is this correct?


No.

--
Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com